Knoll, who managed to flee a mass roundup of Jews in Paris during World War II, was found dead Friday in her apartment in the east of the French capital, where she lived alone.
The murder of Knoll and Halimi has once again rocked France’s Jewish community, which was the victim of terror attacks in 2012 and 2015.
“People are extremely shocked and very worried,” Marc Knobel, head of studies at France’s Jewish umbrella organization CRIF told The Local.
“There have been 11 anti-Semitic murders since 2000 and added to that there is all the everyday violence that the Jewish community goes through.”
Sarah Halimi and Mireille Knoll Photos: Screenshot/Jewish Community Twitter account and AFP
“I think people are more worried than angry because where can you direct you anger?” said Knobel.
Knobel went on to say that the difficulty of the recent murders of Knoll and Halimi is that they took place in their own homes, behind closed doors, where they should have been safe.
“You can’t protect everyone or put a policeman behind every door,” he said, adding that it used to be more common for anti-Semitic attacks to take place against young boys on their way to school or against people going to the Synagogue, that is to say “out in the open”.
“Now it’s old ladies being killed in situations that are terrible which has resulted in a great feeling of fear and insecurity in the community,” he said.
“But there is no miracle solution to the situation,” he said, adding that it’s necessary to make sure schools are addressing the issue properly and that action is taken regarding the spread of anti-Semitic and racist ideas on the internet, which he described as the “world’s bin”.
“However, let’s not forget that we’re not living in a Russian pogrom — many Jewish people live good lives in France,” he said.
After the murder of Knoll, Jewish organisations in France and prominent members of the community took to social media to express their shock at the horrific crime.
The Grand Rabbi of France wrote on Twitter: “Horrified by the tragic loss of Holocaust survivor Mireille Knoll, almost a year to the day after the murder of Sarah Halimi-Attal. The horror of crime and the violence of the murderers are identical and remind us of the negative side of humanity.”
Parisian rabbi Gabriel Farhi also took to Twitter, writing: “Less than a year after the assassination of #SarahHalimi, the foul beast is back. Anger joins with tears.”
And President of CRIF, Francis Kalifat also expressed his anger.
Anti-Semitic violence
The most recent figures available show that anti-Semitic violence increased by 26 percent last year in France and that criminal damage to Jewish places of worship and burials increased by 22 percent.
A record 7,900 French Jews emigrated to Israel in 2015 following the deadly jihadist shooting at a Parisian kosher supermarket two days after the attack on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
That exodus has since slowed, but a spate of anti-Semitic attacks since have continued to frighten one of Europe’s biggest Jewish communities, numbering an estimated half a million.
Source:Thelocal.fr